Restaurant Owner Gets 90 Days in Jail for Bullying Customer Online

A co-owner of two Ottawa restaurants was sentenced to 90 days in jail in a rare criminal defamation case. Marisol Simoes, co-owner of Kinki and Mambo, was found guilty on two counts of defamatory libel after posting a racy, fake dating profile of Mambo customer Elayna Katz, as well as sending sexually inappropriate emails pretending to be from Katz to the customer’s co-workers.

Katz dined at Mambo in 2009, where she said she was served a meal with olives in it after asking for no olives. When she sent the dish back and asked for another, restaurant staff demanded she pay for both, Katz said. Katz posted a negative review at restaurantthing.com after her calls to the restaurant’s manager were not returned. Following the review, she found herself the target of an online smear campaign that reportedly lasted two years.

The judge rejected defense arguments that Simoes had been punished enough as a result of the public humiliation that came with widespread media attention to her case.Besides the 90 days in jail, Simoes was ordered to take anger management classes and carry out 200 hours of community service.